16Upagupta passed through the city gates, and stood at the base of the rampart.

17What woman lay in the shadow of the wall at his feet, struck with the black pestilence, her body spotted with sores, hurriedly driven away from the town?

18The ascetic sat by her side, taking her head on his knees, and moistened her lips with water and smeared her body with balm.

19"Who are you, merciful one?" asked the woman.

20"The time, at last, has come to visit you, and I am here," replied the young ascetic.

Notes

1] Upagupta: a Buddhist monk who taught meditation in Northwest India and who is the centre of a cult today. See John Strong's The Legend and Cult of Upagupta: Sanskrit Buddhism in North India and Southeast Asia (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992). Buddha: "the enlightened," a title given to Siddartha (5th cent. B.C.), the founder of Buddhism, a faith that identifies desire with evil, and evil with suffering, and that aspires to nirvana, the extinction of the individual in God. Mathura: an ancient city in India on the Yamuna river, not far from Dehli, well-known for being the birthplace of Krishna. Back to Line

15] koels: a cuckoo, the E. honorata of India, and sometimes termed the "nightingale" of India (OED). Back to Line